ASME member delivers STEM coalition testimony

University of Maryland (Baltimore County) assistant professor and ASME member Ann Spence testified in early May before the House Appropriations Committee's Subcommittee on Science, State, Justice and Commerce regarding the president's budget request for science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education initiatives. Spence was representing a coalition of more than 50 engineering and educational organizations that comprise the STEM Education Coalition.

Spence told subcommittee members that the coalition was "disheartened" by last year's appropriation for the Education and Human Resource Directorate (EHR) at NSF — and, in particular, the Math and Science Partnership program — and called the president's fiscal year 2006 request "just as grim." Spence told the subcommittee that the coalition supports the Math and Science Partnership programs at the National Science Foundation and at the Department of Education, noting the subcommittee has jurisdiction only over the NSF program.

Several times over the past few years, Spence said, the administration has tried to essentially transfer funding from the Math and Science Partnership programs at NSF to the partnership programs at the Department of Education, even though the programs serve different purposes and have different constituencies. Spence said the NSF program is a merit-based national competition that focuses on education research, whereas the Department of Education program provides grants to states primarily for teacher development programs.

Spence noted that funding for the NSF partnership program has fallen some 57 percent over the past few years. She urged the subcommittee to appropriate $200 million for the program, which is less than Congress authorized just two years ago. "Our future scientists, engineers, mathematicians, technical workers and others responsible for producing our nation's future innovations, protecting our national security, improving our economy, and enhancing our quality of life deserve a world-class education in the sciences, mathematics and engineering," Spence concluded.

The full text of Spence's testimony is available at www.asme.org/gric/ps/2005/05-08.pdf.

NIST releases analysis of Trade Center collapse

The Commerce Department's National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) recently presented its analysis of how the World Trade Center (WTC) towers collapsed after two aircraft were flown into the buildings by terrorists on Sept. 11, 2001. The agency termed the report "the most detailed examination of a building failure ever conducted."

"Like most building collapses, these events were the result of a combination of factors," said Shyam Sunder, lead investigator for the agency's building and fire safety investigation into the WTC disaster. "While the buildings were able to withstand the initial impact of the aircraft, the resulting fires that spread through the towers weakened support columns and floors that had fireproofing dislodged by the impacts. This eventually led to collapse as the perimeter columns were pulled inward by the sagging floors and buckled."

The probable collapse sequences, which update and finalize hypotheses released by NIST last October, were presented by Sunder at a press briefing in New York City. The investigation revealed that each aircraft severed perimeter columns, damaged interior core columns and knocked off fireproofing from steel as the planes penetrated the buildings. The weight carried by the severed columns was distributed to other columns.

At NIST's request, ASME and other standards developers have collaborated on an investigation into occupant egress from, and emergency personnel access to, the buildings during the attack. Recommendations for improvements to building and fire codes, standards and practices derived from that investigation will be released for public comment in June, along with the draft of the final investigation report.

More information, including the full text of Sunder's remarks, is at http://wtc.nist.gov.

— Francis Dietz
ASME Government Relations

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